Well, final episode of StrikerS is over, now to see what they will do next. To make an S4, or not to make an S4....

Episode was farely disapointing, though. Filled to the brink with fanservice that was thrown in there at the last minute. Subaru wielding double knuckles, Teana riding her bike, fleet showing up to blast the Cradle, at least the Signum/Agito unision had some meaning.

Oh well, guess I'll spend tommorow's ride to class bubbling over what to do with Keroko, seeing as how everyone is back at what they used to do I could let her go back to the Rogues, or I could explore different paths.

Decicions decicions.

Before that though, I finished the Tesla piece. *grin*

Spoiler for Holding the line:

In stories, it is always the greatest of battles that are being described. The fight of the hero against the dark lord, the battle to save one being loved, the race I stop a deathtrap that will doom a world. All the while other, from outward appearance slightly minor battles rage in the background alone.

Whatever confirmations came from the squad leaders was drowned out by the whine of drone lasers charging.
[Panzer hindernis!] came the voice of Gungnir as Tesla thrust out her left hand to stop the incoming barrage of several type-2 and a swarm of type-1 drones. The blue barrier stopped all incoming attacks.

“Return fire!”

None of the troops needed to be told that twice. Immediately blasts began to launch in the opposite direction, downing drone after drone. Tesla allowed herself a smile. Vita had done an excellent job training these ground forces. They didn’t so much as flinch at the attacks being launched their way.‘Of course, Vita must have given them hell ten times worse then this and called it training.’

She turned back to the battle at hand. Several of the drones, mostly type-1’s, were now heading towards a course to the left. Judging by their route it seemed as if they were trying to circumvent their defensive line, but… “Kuso.” Tesla cursed as she realized that the drones were never going around the entire block, but were going to use the trashed buildings to get behind their lines.

“Air squad 5, head to these coordinates and stop those drones at any cost.”

“Yes ma’m!”

Tesla sighed as she turned back to face the battle in front of her. She raised Gungnir and took aim for the more heavily armoured type-2 drones. [Blitzschlag!]

3 lightning charged shots launched from the glaive, the first puncturing one drone head on, causing it to explode. The second and third, though, punctured two drones hovering above two of their own. The shots went straight through them, but instead of exploding the two crashed downwards on top of the other two.

Yet another wave defeated, but the next one would not let them wait for long. Now if only-

“Lieutenant! Up there!”

Tesla heard the cry of the ground force mage and looked up. Her eyes widened as she saw the knight Signum had identified as Zest in the sky. This was not a good timing.

-=Signum, Zest has been spotted. He is heading for the HQ on high altitude.=-

-=Understood, Rein and I will intercept.=-

-=Please do.=-

Tesla gave a small sigh of relief. It was a good thing Zest had not targeted the defensive line. He would have wiped out half the line without even trying.

[Feindtätigkeit detektiert.]

Tesla refocused on the battle ahead. Her eyes narrowed as she noticed an increased amount of type-2 drones heading in their direction. More specifically her direction. This confirmed her suspicion that someone was leading these drones, rather then leave them on autopilot.
“Do not break the line!” She called to the troops as she raised herself and stepped over the barrier.

“What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m taking care of that clutter of type-2’s, Nakajima-san. If we let them approach they’ll overwhelm the troops here.”
“Oi, that is-” the man caught himself before he finished his sentence, but Tesla knew what he was going to say. This was reckless. For the average mage, it was suicidal.

But Tesla was no average mage. Tactician or not, she was Tesla, the Knight of the Sky, one of the five Wolkenritter.

And it was time to remind them of that fact.

She raised herself of the ground and shot towards the group of sphere like drones. “Gungnir!”

[Explosion!]

The blade of Gungnir raised, momentarily revealing a line of cartridges in the shaft before slamming back down with a cloud of steam.
[Gewitterwolke!] the device declared as the blade was charged with blue lightning. Tesla never slowed down as she reached the first drone and sliced clean through it, heading straight for the second which brought its metallic arms to block. Tesla pounded though the defense, landing on the ground and shifting her grip to stab through the drones center, the lightning fried the circuits of the machine, causing it to explode.

Before the smoke had even cleared, the other drones had surrounded her. Tesla glanced around and decided to put the remaining magic of the cartridge to good use. She leaped upwards with such speed that the drones lost her for a moment. By the time they had retargeted her, she had reached the peak of her jump.
“Shippuujinrai!” she called as she fell, no, launched downwards, Gungnir crackling with renewed energy as another cartridge was consumed. Just seconds before she hit the ground, she turned all the energy of the fall to the device, swinging it around in a wide arc. “SHUURAI!” the lightning was released with such an intensity and force, that it sliced clean through 3 drones closest to her, went through 2 behind those and obliterated a score of type-1’s in the rear.

And still the type-2’s kept coming. She had taken out seven with those two attacks, but there were still eight remaining, and she no longer had the element of surprise.

For a moment Tesla wished that Rein was here. An Inazuma Shourai would have been great for tackling these remaining drones.

She shook of the thought; Rein was supporting Signum on a far more important task. She could deal with this herself.
“Haaah!” she charged the nearest drone, slicing in apart horizontally before charging toward the next. Raising the tip of Gungnir above her head she shifted the weight of the device more to the center. As she got closer to the drone she drew back the blade, levelled it horizontally and lashed out with a stab. The drone had brought its metal arms to block a vertical strike and was totally unprepared for the stab which cut clean through its sensors. She turned towards the remaining ones, who raised barriers against the inevitable assault.
“Amai!” Tesla shouted at them as another cartridge exploded from the device. Four large blue spinning balls of lightning appeared [Kugelblitz!] Gungnir intoned as the balls of lightning shot towards the drones. Each of them hit a target, clashing with the barriers for only a moment before breaking through. Not even waiting for the smoke of the explosions to clear, Tesla send the four spheres towards the remaining two. Unfortunately the attack had been drained of too much energy while penetrating the barriers, and the first round harmlessly bounced of the barrier. The second, however, broke through and the last two Type-2 drones joined the fate of their predecessors.

Landing back behind the line she was met with two faces she had not expected.

“Shamal! Zafira! What are you doing here?”
“We’re here to do what we can.” The blue wolf answered.
“I’ve been trying to trace the coordinator of these drones, but I’m having trouble locating her.” Shamal answered.
“Try scanning for a low-grade IS barrier line; she seems to favour those from the amount that have popped up in annoying places.”

Shamal nodded and went back to trying to track the one coordinating these drones.

“Will those two be allright?”
“Their opponent is only one sentoukijin. They shouldn’t have to much of a problem against her.”

“How do you know it’s only one?”
“The way the drones moved was matched easily enough, and there was a small lag whenever they changed strategy. Also taking into account the overindulgement at sending the type-2’s at me, it definitely is only one of them.”

“I see…” Genya said. Truth was, he didn’t. “And if you’re wrong?”

“I’m not.”

Before Genya could even begin to argue, Gungnir interrupted.

[Empfanging einen einberufung signal.]

“A summoning signal? Masaka… Yui?”

[positiv.]

Tesla hissed, and glared towards the Cradle. If Yui was trying to summon Gungnir, then that meant there was serious trouble going on.

[Sollte ich gehen?]

“Uhn.”

With a flash of light, the familiar sensation of Gungnir vanished out of Tesla’s reach.

“… protect her well, Gungnir.”

“Was that such a wise choice? We’re still in the middle of a battle ourselves here.”
“Daijoubu, Shamal and Zafira should have cornered the battle coordinator by now. Anytime we could… Ah, there you have it.”

Genya turned to see what Tesla was talking about, but all he saw was the next wave of drones.

“I still don’t see how this helps us.”

Tesla blinked. “What? You don't?” At Genya’s shake of denial she sighed. “Oh well, I’ll show you. Ground units 1 to 5! Surround the drones! Air units 1 to 3! Attack from above, crescent formation!” After giving the orders, she turned back to Genya. “See now?”

Genya shook his head. “I don’t really understand what you’re doing. I can understand surrounding the drones, but what you’re doing is really nothing different from a standard Arc Saber maneuver. They’re not going to fall for that.”
“No, they’re not just going to fall for it. It’ll destroy them completely.” Tesla said. “Watch.”

Genya watched, and as he watched his eyes widened. The drones were stopping their advance and created a circle, the type-2 were in the center, surrounded by type 1’s. “What in the blazes are they doing?”
“They’re doing they only thing they can do, or rather the only thing they’re programmed to do in case of an Arc Saber maneuver.” Tesla explained. “With their coördinator gone, those drones are being ‘led’ by the type-2. Now none of those drones is created for urban warfare, where fire can come from all sides. They’re supposed to advance, and hence they can only fire forward. If you surround them, they’ll go in a defensive formation with the type-1 in front, protecting the now leading type-2’s. This limits their firepower in almost any aspect.”

Genya’s eyes widened in realization. “Then that time-”

Tesla smiled, as if proud of a student that had solved a problem. “Exactly, at the time Gungnir went to Yui, Shamal and Zafira had captured the coordinator, which caused the drones to revert back to standard programming.”

Genya stared at the drones who had now completed their completely useless maneuver and were slowly being mowed down by the troops. He couldn’t help but be amazed at how quickly and sharply the girl had analyzed the situation and turned it into a sure victory.

“But how-”

“You really should get out of your office and play a computer game or two Major.” Tesla said calmly, almost dreamily.

The battle was over in minutes, and the mages prepared for the next wave. The drones A.I. would have manufactured a different strategy, but on their side, none of the mages longer doubted that in the end they would all make it out alive.

Since all the Tesla pieces up to this point were character development (for which I am eternally gratefull to Aaron), I decided to write a little combat piece. Combat suits me better then fluff anyway. Much easier to write.

Apolagies if some of the German seems scrambled. German grammar is a pain in the rear.